


Family values

by Port_in_a_Storm



Series: Roblivion - Find my home [5]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Roblivion, Some parents are arses, Verbal Confrontation, prompted fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 16:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7648432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Port_in_a_Storm/pseuds/Port_in_a_Storm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whilst at a parent-teacher evening, Aaron and Robert are subjected to verbal attacks by some of the parents. Liv is quick to put them in their place.</p><p>Based on a tumblr prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family values

**Author's Note:**

> Told you all I'd spam the hell out of you! You'll all want to smack me before this fortnight is through!
> 
> This particular fic was based on this prompt: "Aaron, Robert and Liv are a great family unit but they aren't conventional and while this shouldn't and doesn't matter to most people, they find themselves facing some objection and abuse from a few of the other parents when they attend a school thing of Liv's. Would love it if Liv is the main one to put them in their place- Aaron and Robert make far better parents than her actual ones!"
> 
> I sincerely hope that this is enjoyed by the prompting nonnie, as I felt a little overwhelmed by this particular prompt, so I hope I did it justice.

Liv arrived home and headed straight for the bin in the kitchen. So intent was she on throwing away what was in her hand that she didn’t realise that Robert was standing at the kitchen counter preparing dinner.

With a small, curious chuckle in his voice, he asked, ‘You alright?’

Liv jumped and held her hand to her heart. ‘God, you scared me!’

‘Sorry!’ He frowned. ‘What’re you doing?’

‘Nothing. Why?’

At the oh-so-innocent answer, Robert folded his arms and gave her a look which mirrored the one his Mum used to give him when she caught him being mischievous. ‘Right, ‘cause that’s not suspicious at all.’ He nodded at the bin. ‘What did you throw away then?’

‘Nothing.’

He shifted, his stance becoming less accusing and more concerned. ‘It wasn’t a condom wrapper, was it?’

‘Robert!’

‘I’m sorry, but I’d rather know than to not. And I’m sure you’d rather tell me than your brother.’ _Your stupidly overprotective brother,_ neither of them said.

Liv shook her head, but her cheeks were flaming. ‘It was not a condom wrapper! I’m only 14!’

‘Yeah, but that’s about right, isn’t it? 14?’

‘I’m not having sex, and that wasn’t anything to do with a condom!’ She sighed. Obviously Robert wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon. ‘It was something from school, okay?’

At that moment, the front door opened and Liv rolled her eyes heavenward. As soon as he entered the kitchen, Aaron sensed the tension between his sister and his boyfriend and his shoulders tensed noticeably. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded, readying himself to play referee to one of their fights.

Robert nodded at Liv. ‘She had something from school that she was gonna throw away.’ Liv glared at him, but Robert only shrugged. He and Aaron weren’t going to keep secrets from each other, especially concerning her.

Aaron groaned into his hands. ‘Christ, Liv, what is it now eh? Not another report?’

‘No! It’s nothing.’

‘Obviously not nothing, or you wouldn’t have thrown it away.’

‘Fine! Fine. Relentless, the both of you! It’s just a letter about this parent-teacher thing at school. It’s nothing important.’

‘Well your brother and I should be the judge of that, surely?’

Liv directed a pleading look at Aaron. ‘He’s right. Let’s see it.’ He smirked when his sister huffed and retrieved the letter from the bin. Robert moved closer to Aaron to read over his shoulder when she handed it to him.

‘ "A meeting to discuss your child’s progress and options into GCSE?" ’ Robert read. ‘Liv, that’s pretty major.’

She shrugged. ‘Not really. I’m not planning on going further after year 11, so I don’t see what the big deal is.’

‘Minds change, Liv.’

‘Mine won’t. Besides, you two don’t want to go to that, do you?’ The question was met with Aaron’s concerned and upset eyes.

‘Why? Because it’s us?’ He looked at Robert and back to her. ‘Would you rather your Mum goes with you?’

‘No! God, no! I just mean that it’s a waste of time.’

Aaron shook his head. ‘I don’t think it is. I’m sure Robert won’t. You need to think about your future, Liv. I wish I had dedicated more time to school.’

That caught her off guard, and she looked at him with wide eyes. ‘Really? _You_ did?’

‘Don’t sound so surprised! I may have amounted to more if I’d’ve, y’know, stuck with it.’

‘You’re not gonna let this go, are you?’

‘Probably not.’

‘Alright then,’ she huffed. ‘Fine. If it’ll keep you two happy!’

Aaron grinned. ‘I’ll put this on the fridge. Or knowing us, we’ll forget come next week.’

‘Please forget!’ Liv shouted, already on her way upstairs.

‘No chance!’ Robert shouted back. He grinned at Aaron and kissed him in greeting. ‘Did you really wish you’d stayed in school?’ he asked sceptically.

Aaron snorted. ‘Fuck no! Had to tell her something!’ He put a fridge magnet on the corner of the letter. ‘I don’t want her turning out like me!’

Robert snaked his arms around Aaron’s waist from behind. ‘I don’t know. I can think of much worse things.’ 

****

Liv was jigging her leg up and down in the back of the car; a move that reminded Robert of Aaron. ‘Hey,’ he said, turning around in his seat. ‘It’ll be okay.’

Aaron looked at her from the rearview mirror. ‘Not embarrassed to be seen with us, are you?’ His voice was joking, but the sentiment was all too real. The last thing he wanted was to make Liv feel embarrassed or like an outcast because of them. 

‘Course not!’ she said vehemently. ‘I’m just thinkin’, that’s all.’

‘About?’

She shrugged. ‘What can I do? I mean, after school? I just have no idea.’

Robert turned round in the seat again. ‘Remember when we had this talk the other day? Just enjoy school, alright. We know it’s scary or whatever, thinking about options and GCSEs, uni and all the rest of it, but all of that stuff will come later.’

‘Yeah, it doesn’t matter if you change your mind about anything, or if you wanna wait for years before uni,’ Aaron said. ‘As long as you know what you can do, and that you’re smart enough to do it. Alright?’

She nodded. ‘Okay. Thank you.’

They smiled encouragingly at her, and Robert turned back to the front just as Aaron was pulling up to the school. Aaron suddenly blanched. ‘There’re a lot of people here,’ he said. The car park was nearly full, and there were still more trying to find a space behind them.

Robert gripped his hand. ‘You okay? D’you want me to go in and you stay here?’ He knew that Aaron suffered a little anxiety, with meeting new people or in places with crowds. Aaron smiled shakily at him.

‘No, it’s alright. Just don’t… leave me alone.’

‘You know I wouldn’t.’

Instantly upon entering the main hall in which chairs, tables and displays had been set up, the noise hit them like a wall. But Robert noticed some of the parents turning in their direction when they came in. He didn’t think he was being paranoid, and was confirmed when he felt Aaron’s calloused hand brush against his. It was the closest his boyfriend would come to asking for some form of support in a crowd this large. He intertwined their little fingers together and heard Aaron breathe a sigh of relief next to him.

Liv took them to each table, telling them beforehand in whispered tones who the teacher was, what they taught, and what she thought of them. All of them, whilst concerned about Liv fitting in, were fairly pleased with her progress, and Aaron put a hand on her shoulder, beaming with pride. 

It was when they were outside again, ready to leave, that it happened. A mother paused in front of Aaron, looking him up and down. Aaron’s eyes narrowed. ‘Can I help you?’

‘I recognise you, don’t I?’ she said. She sounded intrusive, and her eyes cast over Aaron’s black polo shirt and jeans, clearly measuring him up to everyone else and finding him wanting. Then she sneered. ‘Probably one of the young boys my eldest daughter brought home once.’

‘I’m Liv’s brother, actually,’ he said. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’

‘No, I know! You were in the papers at Christmas.’ She called her husband over. ‘He was the lad who attacked that poor warehouse worker!’ Aaron backed away, ashamed at his actions last year, and upset at the memories of Gordon they had provoked.

Robert, who had collected a report of the year’s curriculum from the notice board, appeared at Aaron’s side, noticed his defensive stance, and put himself slightly in front of his family. ‘Can I help at all?’ He sounded pleasant enough, but the hard line of his shoulders told them firmly to back away.

But within moments, another woman had joined them, and once again looked Robert and Aaron up and down. ‘You’re her brother, aren’t you? Yes, my Alice told me about you, and your strange little set up.’

Robert clenched his fist. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Imagine having a young girl living like that: in a house with her brother and his boyfriend.’ Even though she was shorter than Robert, somehow she still managed to look down her nose at him. ‘I heard about your shooting last year.’ Robert flinched, the way he always did when someone mentioned his being shot. ‘And I heard that _he_ ’ she nodded to Aaron ‘was arrested for it. How can you possibly subject a young girl to an environment like that?’

‘That’s none of your business!’ Liv shouted, loud enough to alert a few of the other parents (some of whom were also taking an interest in what was going on; none of them bothered about trying to stop it). ‘We don’t need to listen to this!’

‘And she’s so outspoken!’ someone else commented. ‘This is what comes of having such a young guardian!’

‘Guardian? Is that what he calls himself?’ the first woman’s husband said. ‘A child needs her parents; not some thug and his poof of a boyfriend.’

‘SHUT UP!’ Liv pushed herself in front of Robert. Her face was red with anger. ‘You don’t know the first thing about my family!’

‘This isn’t your family, girl,’ the husband retaliated. ‘Your mother and father, _they’re_ your family.’

‘What, a mother who swanned off to Ireland and a father who isn’t worth the dirt on Aaron’s shoes? My brothers take care of me better than they ever could have done!’ Robert and Aaron looked on proudly, if still a bit shaken from the barrage of abuse from the other parents. And Liv still wasn’t done. ‘They do everything for me! They love me even when I don’t deserve it, and they’ve never given up on me, even when my own Mum did! So you can shove your views!’

She stormed off to where the car was parked, Aaron and Robert close behind her. Aaron unlocked the door and Liv as good as threw herself into the car. The two men looked at each other. Aaron crouched down so that he could talk to his sister; Robert hovered close by. ‘Hey.’ Aaron lifted her chin. She wasn’t crying, but she was shaking in anger. ‘You were amazing! Thank you. For everything you said.’

Liv shook her head. ‘People only care if I have a mum and dad. They don’t care that I’m happy with you and Rob, or that you’re fantastic guardians. Like, all of that earlier, when I was freaking out over my options. You two knew how to calm me down. Mum wouldn’t know the first thing about it! You two just _get me_ , you know?’

Robert tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘And we care about you,’ he said. ‘We want you to be happy, Liv.’ He put a supportive hand on Aaron’s back, knowing his boyfriend was still shaken about the reminder of Gordon, however indirectly. ‘As long as you’re happy, we don’t care what people think about us. Within reason, obviously!’

‘No, but I care,’ she said. ‘I don’t want people to think that our family is a bunch of freaks. You’re ten times better than half of them lot in there.’

‘Well, we try,’ Robert chuckled. 

Aaron smiled. ‘It means so much to us that you stood up for us like that, Liv. It’s good to know you want to protect us as much as we want to protect you.’

‘We’re a team, aren’t we?’ she said. A smile finally graced her face, and her brother hugged her.

‘Yeah, we are.’

Robert kissed her head softly, and then helped Aaron to his feet. ‘Come on. Home, food, then movie yeah? Put today behind us.’

Liv was quiet on the way back to the house, and Robert constantly shifted his attention from her to his boyfriend beside him, whose eyes were firmly on the road, but his fists were clenched tightly around the steering wheel. 

When they got home, Liv headed straight to her room, saying she was going to phone Gabby to tell her what had happened. In the kitchen and preparing vegetables for their dinner, Robert turned to Aaron. ‘You want to talk about it?’

Aaron shook his head, but didn’t deny that something was wrong. That was progress at least. Robert pulled him close and Aaron burrowed into his boyfriend’s warmth, taking comfort in his presence.

‘I still can’t believe the way she talked back to those people!’ Robert said after a while.

Aaron hummed in agreement. ‘We’re doin’ alright, aren’t we? With her?’

‘Of course we are. We’re giving her everything she needs: shelter, stability, love. Besides, if we were doing anything wrong, she wouldn’t have been so quick to defend us today.’

Aaron’s arms tightened around him, and Robert took that as a sign of his agreement. They weren’t conventional, that was certain; especially not for a little family in Yorkshire. But they were getting by and they cared about each other: today was proof of that.

**Author's Note:**

> Come have a nosy on tumblr!: [](http://www.portinastorm.tumblr.com><a>Port%20in%20a%20Storm</a>%0A%0ABy%20the%20way,%20thank%20you%20all%20for%20the%20insanely%20amazing%20response%20for%20'Black%20tie'!%20I%20had%20to%20sit%20down%20for%20a%20good%20long%20while%20and%20just%20grin%20to%20myself%20like%20a%20loon%20at%20all%20of%20the%20kudos%20and%20lovely%20comments!)


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